


A Lack of Color

by purplechenji



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Coming of Age, First Meetings, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, M/M, Personal Growth, Soulmates, could be platonic if you ignore the end notes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-04
Updated: 2020-12-04
Packaged: 2021-03-10 00:01:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,932
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27744886
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/purplechenji/pseuds/purplechenji
Summary: The thing is that Jisung didn’t want to rely on any of them anymore. He wanted to be able to trust himself. But he didn’t want to be alone either.For the first time in forever, Jisung entertained the thought of meeting his soulmate more than a couple of seconds.OrIn a world where you start seeing colors after looking into your soulmate's eyes, Jisung grows used to see in black and white.
Relationships: Park Jisung/Zhong Chen Le
Comments: 6
Kudos: 116
Collections: Challenge #3 — soulmates





	A Lack of Color

**Author's Note:**

> hello ! this is not only my first time joining a little wonder and my first time writing for nct, it's also my first time writing fanfiction in five years hehe
> 
> also i wanted to thank the mods for making this happen, you are sincerely the best, thanks to my friends that supported me when i told them i wanted to write again and thanks to my beta
> 
> hope you enjoy !

Jisung was six years old when he first learned about what a soulmate was. He was coming home after spending an early-spring afternoon with his parents at a park. They had to go because of the rain, but that didn’t sadden Jisung at all. He loved watching the raindrops rolling down against the back seat’s window, the gentle sounds of the light rain almost had made him fall asleep.

When they stepped out of the car the rain had already stopped, that’s when his mother raised her hand towards the sky. Jisung looked up, confused after not seeing anything other than grayish rain clouds. His mother sent him an affectionate smile. 

“You can’t see it yet, but if you watch carefully you can notice how there are places where the clouds seem like they are glowing,” his mom said while drawing a curved line over the sky. Jisung nodded, this time knowing what his mother was referring to. “That’s called a rainbow. Rainbows are made of colors.”

His parents had already told him what colors were. It still was a strange idea for him, that someday he would see more than black and white, but he wasn’t afraid of it, more than that, he wanted to see colors as soon as he could. He told that to his mom.

“One day, you will find a special person that will love you as much as you will love them, you will know it’s them because after the first time you look at each other’s eyes you will also see color for the first time. That person is called a soulmate.”

Every other month at Jisung’s primary school, one of his classmates would come to class with the brightest teeth-showing smile and he knew that all he was going to hear that day was how meeting your soulmate changed your entire world, quite literally. Jisung excitedly joined the conversation with his other classmates who also haven’t met their destined one, sharing their hopes, worries and dreams on how and when they will meet them.

Those were the days Jisung and his father would go to their backyard and wait until the sun set down to admire the shining white stars in the black night sky.

By the time high school came, Jisung was the only one in his friend group who hadn’t met their soulmate. Jisung wasn’t used to feel like he didn’t fit in, which was very unfortunate considering how lately it seemed that the only topic of conversation between the people around him was his single status.

His friends organized group dates where they would set him up with other acquaintances, waiting for that fairytale-like moment when Jisung and his date would look into each other’s eyes and the world would burst in vivid colors. Of course, that moment never came, and Jisung started declining their invitations as politely as he could. He knew that his friends only wanted to make him feel included but, in reality, this only made him feel even more lonely. 

He did his best to not show his discomfort in front of his family, but he should have known that his mother would have noticed how quiet he had been the last couple of days when she entered his room that night and asked him if something bad had happened to him.

And Jisung, who had never been able to lie to his mom, told him everything. How he was slowly losing hope about meeting his soulmate, if he had one at all. That he wanted to be like everyone else. He wanted to know what his friends were talking about. How he tried to imagine the orange of the sunset, the blue of the sea or the multicolored new year’s fireworks that every song of the radio talked about.

How he felt left out.

His mother let him talk until he was done. “First of all, I wanted you to know that everything you just said is valid.” She held his hand reassuringly, never losing eye contact. “Jisung, I know that you aren’t that little kid who believed in fairy tales anymore. You know that too,” she said, caressing his hand with her thumb. “But you need to know that your soulmate is probably feeling as desperate as you to finally meet, so don’t give up on them. You deserve to be happy as much as everyone else”.

When he showed up for breakfast the next morning, his mother didn’t comment about his puffy eyes.

People usually meet their soulmates before finishing university, so it wasn’t a secret that the elective Jisung took his last year at university was created for the few students who haven’t met their other halves.

The elective was a drawing course focused on black and white art techniques. Jisung has never been a fan of visual arts, especially paintings, but in his opinion it was completely justified. Art wasn’t usually created with people like him in mind.

This year’s course was going to be imparted by a graduated fine arts major, as he introduced himself, called Huang Renjun.

After explaining the details of what they were going to do this semester, Renjun took a moment to look at everyone’s faces.

“I know that probably none of you choose this class because you wanted to. That doesn’t mean you can’t make the most of it.” Renjun's tone was serious but always gentle. “This semester I’m going to teach you that you can’t wait until you meet your soulmate to start appreciating the beauty in the world.”

Drawing classes were a lot better than he had expected, so much that he started anticipating them. He could say for the first time since he was a kid that he enjoyed art. It was all thanks to Renjun, who was as good with art as he was as a teacher. However, what had surprised him the most was how close he had become with Renjun. After the course finished, they kept their friendship, sometimes they would meet to eat lunch at the university’s cafeteria and on rare occasions they would go to each other’s homes to binge-watch their favorites anime.

He wasn’t surprised anymore when Renjun and his fiancé invited him to come over to celebrate Jisung’s graduation.

Jisung knew that getting a job without any further experience than working at a convenience store with only a history degree was going to be near impossible, so the morning Renjun called (he recalled complaining about it the week before) and told him that the museum he works at was going to hold interviews the next month. He ignored the fact that he knew almost nothing about art and started going to Renjun’s apartment where he spent the following weeks training Jisung on the topics that definitely will be asked at the interview and for Jisung’s annoyance, that included memorizing the colors that composed the main art pieces of the museum.

One week left until the interview, he went out with his mother to buy proper clothes. She made him change outfits four times and every time she would send a picture to his father, to which he enthusiastically replied how handsome Jisung looked with all of them. Jisung was so thankful that his parents always did their best to make him feel included. He knew that his inability to see color didn’t bother them, or Renjun, at all. He would always have their help as an option.

The thing is that Jisung didn’t want to rely on any of them anymore. He wanted to be able to trust himself. But he didn’t want to be alone either.

For the first time in forever, Jisung entertained the thought of meeting his soulmate more than a couple of seconds.

Before he could start working as a tour guide, Jisung was required to start as a volunteer while attending the museum’s training course, in which Renjun, once again, did as his mentor. Jisung would come to work, usually registering and handing tickets to visitors, and wait until Renjun’s work schedule started. 

Desk work wasn’t the most pleasing one to do, in fact, Jisung absolutely preferred assisting Renjun’s guided tours, even if he had denied it when Renjun brought up how eager he seemed to get out of the reception. Truth be told, he couldn’t deny to himself that the reason he favored guiding visitors through the museum was because of the tiniest possibility that maybe one of them would be his destined one. He quickly got rid of that thought when he saw Renjun waving at him.

While Renjun’s work was introducing the museum’s art collection, Jisung’s duties consisted of interacting with all visitors, giving them directions and answering if they had any questions, always remaining friendly and polite, Renjun would say.

When the current group of visitors followed Renjun to the next room, Jisung noticed that a boy had stayed behind watching attentively one of the paintings. The boy in question had his back to Jisung, but he could clearly see which composition was the one that caught his attention.

It was, as he heard one time Renjun describing it, a portrayal of the artist’s garden full of irises in different tonalities of blue, inspired in his devotion for the color of his soulmate’s eyes.

“Do you like this work better than the rest?” Jisung asked, not because it was part of his job, he was genuinely curious of why the boy was so interested in this specific work.

“If I’m being honest,” the boy let out a sigh, “I think I hate it. I can’t see anything, it’s just gray. I don’t know why I came here.”

 _Oh_. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you," Jisung hurried to clarify. “If it makes you feel better, I haven’t met my soulmate either.”

“Really? That doesn’t make any sense.” The other chuckled. “Why are you working here then?”

Just as Jisung was about to answer, the boy turned around to face him and suddenly color flooded his vision.

It took him only a couple of seconds to adjust his vision and it took a couple more to fully realize what just happened. He was seeing _colors_ , which meant that he had a _soulmate_.

The boy in front of him, his soulmate, still had his eyes closed. Jisung wanted to say something but instead he kept silently staring at the other’s face. He had high cheekbones, a defined jawline and pink plump lips. Jisung felt like he had just won the soulmate lottery.

“Stop looking at me like that.” The boy blurted out, color creeping on his cheeks. 

“Sorry, again.” Jisung let out a nervous laugh, feeling like a teenager. He didn’t want to make the boy uncomfortable. “What’s your name?”

“Zhong Chenle.”

“Chenle,” Jisung repeated. When Chenle didn’t correct his pronunciation, he continued, “I’m Park Jisung.”

“Jisung,” Chenle said, voice sweet like an angel. “Do you want to get out of here?”

In that moment, Jisung’s soul wanted to scream that yes, he wanted to go anywhere as long as it was by Chenle’s side and although a part of him wasn’t sure that it was normal to feel that way so early, he felt sad when he remembered where they were.

“I would love to, sadly my shift ends in a couple of hours; but,” he said, looking directly at Chenle's eyes, voice filled with hope. “If you’d like to, I can guide you through the rest of the tour and after that, we could go out for dinner?”

Chenle smiled softly, “It sounds good to me.”

**Author's Note:**

> (Later that year, after dating for a few months, Chenle and Jisung see their first rainbow together)


End file.
